A system-on-chip (SOC) is an integrated circuit (IC) that includes a plurality of different subsystems. The subsystems are included within a single chip substrate. The subsystems of the SOC are integrated to work cooperatively with one another. One example of an SOC is a chip level implementation of a computer or other data processing system. For example, the SOC may include a processor that executes program code such as an operating system and/or one or more applications. The processor operates cooperatively with one or more of the other on-chip subsystems. The other subsystems may be digital circuits, analog circuits, mixed-signal circuits, or the like. Exemplary subsystems that may be included within an SOC and operate cooperatively with a processor may include, but are not limited to, wireless transceivers, signal processors, CODECs, memory, memory controllers, I/O peripherals, and the like.
The subsystems of the SOC are often varied and specialized. Each subsystem typically has a plurality of control registers that control the functionality and/or behavior of that subsystem. In the usual case, a subsystem has hundreds or thousands of different control registers. Taking a system-wide view, the number of control registers of an SOC may be overwhelming to a user attempting to implement a circuit design therein.